In search of the good life? Experiences of executives and senior managers navigating reduced hours in the UK

Tomlinson, Jennifer; Durbin, Sue; Warren, Stella; Daly, Jack

Abstract

The challenges of greater wellbeing, work-life reconciliation and gender balance in senior management and executive careers are well established. Working hours are critical to career advancement and women, more so than men, seek a reduction in hours at stages in the life-course that are also career defining. Previous research has shown that women face stagnating careers when they reduce their working hours (Durbin and Tomlinson 2010) but little research has to date focused upon elite careers (executive and senior management) or compared the experiences of both men and women who reduce their hours.
Based upon 35 interviews with 26 women and 9 men who were senior managers and executives working reduced hours in the UK private sector, we engage with and respond to several of the questions posed in this EGOS subtheme, namely: What might ‘good life’ careers look like? What are the alternatives to the dominant narratives of career success? How can these alternatives be enacted and sustained? In particular we compare and contrast two forms of reduced hour working in executive and senior management careers: a reduction in working days with reduction in pay, which we refer to here as a ‘four day week’ and job share partnerships.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: 39th EGOS Colloquium: Organising for the Good Life: Between Legacy and Imagination
• Start Date: Jul 6, 2023
• End Date: Jul 8, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jul 18, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 21, 2023
• Keywords: reduced hours, work life balance, senior executives
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10956869